Her death affected me deeply. Could I have done anything to prevent it? I had been in touch with her off and on since 1992, but apparently my fan comments had not sufficiently helped her see the bright side of life. I knew she had been a pained, troubled soul.
At the time I discovered Kevin's tribute site, he barely did anything to update it anymore. So when I asked him if I could take over, I think he happily agreed.
So on 8 December 1998 I launched the first iteration of my version of the site. Since I was not in touch with any members of the original line-up, it focused on the then current incarnation of the band, going by the name of Fog. My main contacts were vocalist John Childs and guitarist Tony Mallory. The domain was jezabelsdreams.com, named after the album released by this band.
Fog dissolved, as it does, and in March 2001 I launched a totally revamped version of the site, inspired by having been on the phone with original guitarist Mike Carlino the winter before. It focused much more on the line-ups that recorded "Recognize no Authority" and, obviously, the seminal "Within the Veil".
Years later, I happened upon Tony Keastead's Dawn Crosby fan page on Facebook. We struck up a mutually beneficial exchange of information. When I decided my Fear of God site wasn't really going anywhere due to lack of time and lack of news, I contacted Tony to ask if he was willing to take it over and become the third webmaster. He agreed, and nearly 17 years to the day after I had re-started the site, he took over. I occasionally visited the site, and was glad to see it was being updated more often than I did.
Late 2019 or early 2020 I visited the site and noticed the domain had expired. There was now no official presence of Fear of God, nor Dawn Crosby, on the web.
During the Corona crisis it occurred to me that I should at least make sure that there was some semblance of a repository of All Things Dawn. This culminated in my registering fearofgod.band (fearofgod.com, my first choice, was taken by some fashion brand). I re-instated the site from a backup, checked out the Wayback Engine Internet Archive to add some of Tony's latest changes, updated various bits and bobs on the site, and also added the forum you're reading now.
Now it needs to be said: This site doesn't use state-of-the-art web design techniques, so it may not work well on phones or other small screens. But there is for now, and the foreseeable future, a place where fans of Dawn and her bands can find information and, due to this forum, meet.
Now then, what about the stuff I promised, about myself? I am Richard Karsmakers, a teacher of English from Gouda, the Netherlands. I first heard "Within the Veil" on 14 March 1992 and I was instantly hooked. In the month after, I saw Fear of God twice, and both times met Dawn. I did not realise it wasn't the original line-up, but the music was there. To me, "Within the Veil" was the album of 1991 (not Metallica's black album, though I loved that too back then).I was 24 at the time, and Fear of God struck a chord in my soul despite my rather privileged life.
Apart from Fear of God, I do listen to a lot of other metal and hardrock. I am an avid collector of MP3 bootlegs. I also do websites, but only as an amateur (you can probably tell
). If you want to know even more about me you can always have a gander at my personal site (see my profile).I hope you'll enjoy the site and the forum. I wish Dawn could have been around to enjoy this part of her legacy.